35

Chapter 31 -- Illinois

The plans to stay in Chicago with Chris Reeve and Eva Vega changed. Alice had explained to them in a phone call that there'd been many changes in Circle attendance Things changed further as she started the journey with the others from outside of Madison, Wisconsin.

While the Convention of the Circle Fan Club that Chris and Eva had arranged was still at the Wrigley Convention Center, there were more and more people from the Circle attending than Chris and Eva could possibly fit in their apartment, so they'd arranged for several suites at the Marriott -- Downtown. Dave liked the new arrangements.

Simon, Lindsay, and Macy also got a nearby room at the same hotel. They left their camper in a guarded lot near Macy's apartment, and then the three came deeper into the city by public transit to join up with the others at Alice and Dave's invitation.

Dave and Alice rode the 1988 Harley Davidson Heritage Softail right to the hotel entrance. After unloading the bike, Dave was escorted to a protected parking area for bikes; he locked up the bike, glad that he saw a security camera overhead and chain link gates.

Alice had checked in while Dave parked the motorcycle. He met her in the lobby and they took an elevator up to the fortieth floor where their suite was located. Off the elevator, they found their room and used the key card to enter.

"Yeah, they're here!" JR cheered as she rose to greet the couple. "Hi, husband. Hi, wife." There were many others in the room.

They all kissed and hugged. Immediately, from some of the suite's bedrooms, his other wives appeared: Pam, Heather, Julie, Scarlett, Nikky, Bridget, Tatiana, and Cricket. Cricket said, "Some of us are in the connecting suite next door. There are others from the Circle there and in some rooms down the hall: Sean and Kat, Ty and Dori, Christie, Erin, Arron and Shelby, Jason, Cookie, Ginny, Ross, Matt and Rose, Helen, Jack, Owen, and Jenn. I think I'm forgetting somebody or two. I made sure Chris and Eva knew who was coming, so they have the complete list as I knew it."

Dave shook his head, "OMG, there are more of us than there are fans attending the conference."

Several laughed. Cricket said, "Chris and Eva are on their way over. He told me they were a sell-out for the space. They had to cut off ticket sales at five-thousand."

Dave gawked, "FIVE-THOUSAND! My God, don't people have something better to do with their time? That's just amazing that there are that many people that interested in the Circle."

Scarlett said, "There are, and that's also why we all decided to come. On Friday night, when you go onstage to give the keynote for the weekend, we're all going to appear with you. This way, everybody can see that you, your wives, and the Circle are for real. We thought we'd bring up or introduce in some way the others from the Circle that are here, too, and then we'll all sit down in front and listen to you speak and sing. Chris and Eva were working on that part of the agenda this afternoon. They and their friends are like one-armed paper hangers, racing around tending to last minute details. They're still making changes to how things will unfold. Thank heavens we have two days before it all starts. Cricket has been on the phone with them for hours before we got here."

"What happens on Saturday and Sunday?" he asked.

The door opened and Chris and Eva walked in. They'd just heard his question. Chris said, "I'll answer that. We've had to lock in everything and we thank you all for your flexibility. Can we get the others in here, too, and I'll explain the revised agenda?"

Eva went out with JR, and started to knock on doors. By ones and twos others from the Circle showed up in the room. Eventually, about twenty-five people were in the room, plus the conference organizers Chris and Eva. While they were waiting, Simon, Lindsay, and Macy also joined the group. Alice made a quick group introduction of the newbies.

Chris spoke, "All right everybody, here's what I hope will happen." He laughed. "Friday night at seven o'clock, I will call the conference to order, say a few words about the Circle and the fan club, and then introduce Dave -- that'll be no more than five minutes. I'd like Dave to then introduce each of his wives and say a word or two about each as they come out and stand beside him on either side. Balance, please, so he ends up in the middle with five of you on either side of him.

"We then want Dave to say that there are many others from the Circle there and have them join him on stage. That'll be this entire group, thank you. Please wave and smile. Dave won't introduce the second group by name, that'll take too long. Many of you are leading breakout groups the next two days, so you'll get your moment of fame then.

"Dave then speaks. Behind the stage, out of view of the audience because of a black curtain, Ashley and her band will quietly be setting up. Dave, when you finish your remarks, about forty-five minutes in, we'd like you to comment that you forgot to mention one important additional Circle member that came to visit the confab, Ashley Steerman. You might also talk about your burgeoning career as a country singer, please. Mention Ashley's name and the curtain will part and she'll be there with her band. She wants a rehearsal with you tomorrow afternoon, by the way. Ashley, you, and the band will do about an hour with one encore. You and she will be the emcees for that time. That'll end Friday night. The audience only knows there'll be some kind of entertainment after you speak."

Saturday, there are two parallel tracks each with two sessions before and after lunch; all the tracks run all morning or all afternoon. I'll run through this quickly, but I hope to have a printed version in your hands within the hour. Saturday a.m., track one, Consensual Non-Monogamy led by Cricket; track two, Circle Spirituality, led by Ross Buchman. Next, track three, Woman's Panel with Alice, Kat, Rose, and Christie; track four, Men's Panel with Ty, Sean, Jason, and Owen, and Dave if he feels up to the task. Then we all break for lunch. The breakout rooms, including the large space for the plenary speeches, each can hold up to a thousand people the way the walls and chairs are arranged. We have volunteers there to cut off attendance to that level. Any others will go to another session or wander the halls for meet and greet. I'll explain that to everyone.

After lunch, starting at one-thirty, track one, Compersion-Jealousy with Aaron and Cookie; track two, Equality led by Dori and Owen. Track three, Exclusivity led by Jenn; and Cohousing-Cohabitation led by Owen and Jack. That ends Saturday. We decided not to do an evening program, but there is a huge cocktail hour with cash bar back in the room where the large session is held. We have lots of hors d'oeuvres, and we are encouraging the fans to mix it up with each other. Lots of social time.

Sunday a.m., track one, Child Rearing in a Circle Setting Panel with Jenn, Shelby, and Heather, and track two, Boundaries -- Personal and Groupwide with Ginny and Ross. The late morning session is a plenary session with a panel on Sex in the Circle, with Cricket, Rose, Dave, Alice, Aaron, and Matt. There's then a lunch break, and many may bug out at that point. There is one combined session plenary session after lunch on Structure, Culture, and Legal Arrangements led by Ginny and Jason. That should end about three p.m., and please don't be disappointed if those are not well-attended. That's sort of the admin side of things, and people may be more interested in the sex. If others of you without assignment want to participate, I urge you to do so." He laughed and so did the rest of the room.

Chris held up his hand, "Just one more thing, at four o'clock on Sunday, back here in this suite, I'd like to hold a post-mortem with all of you and a few others from the conference staff. Now, any questions. Most of you already knew your assignments, and hopefully have been structuring things for your sessions. If you have handouts that we don't know about we'd like those by ten a.m. tomorrow so we can have copies made. Oh, yes, one more thing; all sessions are being recorded; attendees will get a free thumb drive with all the sessions on it; other fans can order one online at the fan club website for a modest fee."

There were a lot of questions, and Chris competently and crisply handled them. He made a few notes about some of the sessions and arrangements. There were a couple of staffing changes for the sessions -- mostly additions, but not many.

Dave sat back and watched the whole thing play out in front of him. His questions and concerns were minor, and many would be answered just by showing up an hour before he was scheduled to speak and sing.

The Circle group practically took over the restaurant in the hotel. Dave invited Simon, Lindsay, and Macy to join them at their table for the dinner, but as they started to sit, he suggested that they each take a different table to meet some of the various others from the Circle. He was pleased with the Circle's turnout for the event, although Dave was a little mystified by what value the fan club actually added to the members who hadn't showed up for the weekend.

Scarlett sought Dave out at the dinner, sitting next to him with Macy on his other side. They bonded despite him being in between. Scarlett ended by wooing Macy into coming to Florida and becoming a pledge to the Circle. Macy was worried about becoming an architect and getting the right qualifications. Scarlett said, "I think I can take care of that."

Scarlett got up from the table and searched through the restaurant until she found Jack Anders, the architect of the cohousing project and a well-respected architect in the Sarasota-Tampa area. She talked to him for a bit, and then she came back and retrieved Macy from her seat and brought her over to Jack. She left the two of them talking, and brought back Shelby with her, Dave's sister-in-law. She took Macy's place instead of her seat next to Jack.

Dave later discovered that Macy went through a rigorous interview by Jack before he offered her a job as his assistant, on the spot. Macy also accepted instantly and cried for joy. They spent the next hour talking about how she could move from Chicago to Sarasota and where she'd stay. After a call to Grace, Macy was invited to temporarily reside in the Ander's house until she got the lay of the land and of the Circle. One of the responsibilities that Jack assumed in the transaction was that he'd help Macy become a licensed architect instead of an apprentice.

The night on the fortieth floor was a bit like musical beds. Dave hadn't seen many of the women in the Circle for months, and they all wanted to reestablish the loving relationship they had with Dave. Fortunately, the Circle had the entire floor, so running naked between rooms became acceptable behavior.

Further, Simon, Macy, and Lindsay were new acquaintances given the solid stamp of approval by Alice and Dave. They were folded into the evening activities along with Chris and Eva, just as though they had been life-long members.

The suite Dave had been assigned had four bedrooms, each with a king-size bed, and two of those rooms also had a pull-out queen-size sofa bed. Thus, there were six beds in the suite, enough room to accommodate eight couples comfortably, with two or three more easily fit into the living room, at least assuming they weren't sleeping. The adjacent suite was a duplicate, and then elsewhere on the floor were smaller suites and some single rooms belonging to Circle members.

As the evening got underway in the two large suites, Dave found himself initially with Scarlett and Julie. When they were satisfied, Dave wandered down the hallway to the other duplicate suite. He was greeted with enthusiasm, and spent the next hour with Ginny and Cookie. Cricket appeared to do the cleanup when he was through spreading his charms around.

Dave went back to the other suite, but as he got to the hallway, he encountered Rose and Bridget changing rooms. Both were completely naked except for earrings. They captured him, and led him to one of the double rooms. Two of the hottest women in the Circle were nearly comatose when he left them an hour later. He did have a diabolical smile on his face. He'd given each of them The Experience so they'd remember him.

Back in his suite, he ended the night with Pam and Jenn. Jenn was more than midway into her pregnancy and exceptionally happy with the prospect of giving her daughter Nova a sibling. Dave was the father.

Early the next morning, Dave arose and dressed in his running togs. He exited the hotel, and with some help from the valet at the front door of the hotel he headed for the lakeside park and a long run around the various trails, some of which used to be Meigs Field -- a general aviation airport right in the city. He did six miles, a hundred sit ups, and some other calisthenics and he headed back to the hotel.

He was in the suite's shower when Scarlett joined him. Scarlett loved being made love to in the morning, even in the shower. Thank goodness the hotel didn't run out of hot water. They were finishing up when Alice, Lindsay, and Heather came into the shower. Alice gave him a wink and gestured at Lindsay; he guessed that the younger woman was about to have a few orgasms under the warm water.

As they were having their second cups of coffee, Ashley appeared in the hotel restaurant. She'd just arrived with her band, having taken a charter flight from Nashville to Midway Airport. They kissed and got themselves food at the breakfast buffet.

Ashley and Dave went over what he knew and she'd been told about the Friday evening performance, and then she pulled out a page and they went over her suggestions for the songs that they'd sing. They were very relaxed about the order and Dave realized that he was increasingly comfortable with a new on-stage role in the music industry.

As they talked Dave became aware of a video camera filming them. Helen walked by and briefly talked to the cameraman. Apparently, he was part of the Spring Garden Productions team that did the videos of the Circle for later editing and viewing on the various cable channels across the country. Ash and Dave waved at the camera.

Ashley had arranged for a large meeting room at the hotel for their afternoon rehearsal. Everyone gathered and they did a run through of the various songs Dave knew. Ashley then introduced him to three other songs, each one a duet with Ashley. By the time they stopped at six p.m., he felt comfortable with the new songs provided he had the music in front of him.

The fortieth-floor orgy after dinner was significantly augmented by the presence of Ashley, the band -- now thought of as having their own allied Circle, and the back-up singers, along with Chris and Eva -- the heads of the fan club, and again Simon, Lindsay, and Macy. Ashley had gotten three four-bedroom suites on the floor below for herself and the others in her retinue, so those also became a mecca for pre-conference sex.

Friday at noon, after a repeat of his morning run, exercises, and breakfast with all of his wives, friends, and lovers, Dave rode over to the Wrigley Convention Center with Chris, Eva, Ashley, and Robby -- the band leader.

Dave was surprised there was a lot of activity. There were tables set up and staffed by some 'fans' and friends of Chris and Eva. Dave met most of the people, mostly women, and got one hug after another as he went from table to table at the check-in. He got a typical registration pack, and for the first time had a hardback copy of Cricket's new book in his hand -- The Circle: A How To Guide.

In the large auditorium, a group of roadies were setting up rows of folding chairs facing the raised stage. The group all went up on stage and looked out across the vast seating area being arranged.

Dave made a suggestion or two about how they could have some fun with one of the fans during the concert portion of the night, and after some discussion Chris ran off to arrange what would happen.

Ashley and Dave tried out the microphones and audio, realizing as they suspected that the acoustics in the very old hall were far from perfect. Hopefully, with five-thousand people in the hall, some of the echoing and bounce-back would mitigate.

The concert entertainers eventually did an on-stage rehearsal. A few of the fans registering earlier than the four o'clock door opening got to hear them, but the numbers were small compared to their eventual audience.

Everyone went back to the hotel to chill for a while. Chilling for Ashley and Dave meant that they made love for over an hour in her large bed. She was moderately pregnant, very horny and romantic. So was Dave. Later they had a supper snack.

Exactly at seven p.m., Chris Reeve walked out on the stage and quieted everyone down. Some jazzy music had been playing over the PA system to keep the crowd pumped up. He spoke for about five minutes about the fan club, the rapidly rising membership, and how they hoped to do an annual 'shindig' like this one each year based around the TV show and what else was happening in the Circle. After a lengthy recitation of Dave's biography, Chris called Dave out onto the stage.

Dave came out waving and smiling to a standing ovation. The acclaim brought tears to his eyes. He never dreamed he'd have such adoring fans. He did notice that the audience was about two-thirds women. To his left and right, there were huge video screens repeating his image so everyone in the auditorium could see him up more or less close and personal.

"Hello Fans!" he waved. "I am humbled by your welcome, and I accept that not only for myself but also for the more than two-hundred others in the Circle down in Sarasota. We appreciate your interest in us and in the TV show that Spring Garden Productions puts together about our unique life and lifestyle.

"My life would not be what it is and will be without my family. I'd like to introduce you to them, one at a time. First, is the woman that really helped start all of this -- my wife Alice."

A thunderous standing ovation followed as Alice came out from behind the curtain. She and Dave hugged.

Dave reminded the audience, "Alice was the woman parking her old Honda next to a car at work one morning that she soon discovered contained her best friend Dori having the stuffing fucked out of her by one of their company's salesmen. In those seconds of shock, the Circle really was born, because from that moment onward to today, we've been proponents of loosening up and loving more than just one other person. Our journey was long and sometimes arduous.

"Shortly after that event with Dori -- who's around here somewhere, Pam came into our lives and became OUR wife." Pam came out from behind the curtain to much applause and cheering. Dave then proceeded to introduce Heather, Julie, Cricket, Scarlett, JR, Nikky, Tatiana, and Bridget. He said a few words about each of them. The place went wild with cheering and shouts from everybody.

"There are more of us from the Circle here tonight. I'd like the rest of them to come on stage before I say a few things about the Circle that I hope might interest you. As each person came out from behind the stage, Dave did introduce them by name only. He'd asked the audience to hold their applause until the end. Gradually, the entire stage filled until about twenty-five of them stood there waving to the crowd.

Dave said, "Some of us will be leading the various breakout sessions or on panels the next two days, so you'll all have an opportunity to meet and even talk with some of us. Of course, as you see us walking around, we'd love to meet YOU. We've been given name badges with a colored circle on them, so you can spot us more easily." He touched his own nametag.